Travel

Super 8 Hotel Review in Mt. Carmel: A Business Traveler’s Perspective

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It doesn’t look like much from the street, and I’m not a big fan of Super 8 for various reasons, but I thought I would add a recent review of my hotel stay in Mt. Carmel, Illinois.

I had an overnight business trip in this area, and it’s common knowledge that there aren’t many decent hotels in rural East Central Illinois. Most business travelers in this area go across the state line and stay in nearby Princeton, Indiana, which has a Hampton Inn and a Holiday Inn Express. My plans had been a bit up in the area before this stay, and I put off making reservations. In addition, the hotels on this night, in this area, seemed to be much higher than usual. I assume there was some local event driving prices up.

I started to make a reservation at the Holiday Inn Express as I needed some IHG nights and had a decent promo for extra points, but the reviews seemed really bad for that location.

The Hampton seemed much better, although the current Hilton promo is bad, and I don’t value Hilton points as much. For the night I needed the price was nearly $200 a night! Very high for this area, so I put it off. Big mistake. When I was ready to book the day before my trip, the Hampton was sold out, leaving a bad HIX or….A Super 8, the horror… I’ve stayed in a few Super 8’s over many years, and none were good. Usually built like cracker jack boxes, noisy, trucks idling all night outside the window, full of drunk construction workers, etc., etc. Many also came off as dirty, bugs, mold, smelling of pot, you name it.

So in desperation, I looked again at the Super 8 in Mt. Carmel, and the reviews on Google showed 4.0, not bad, but sometimes reviews are relevant to the client base. It’s one thing for a person who stays at a lot of Super 8 hotels to give it a good review over someone who is used to staying at nicer level hotels, for example. I’m not a fancy person, but the other reason I don’t stay at Wyndham hotels is that I don’t collect or value their points. So I checked out TripAdvisor and again good reviews and good photos. I then went to American Airlines Hotels and booked it so I could earn 1,600 AA miles.

I knew I would arrive about 5pm and would leave early the next day, so it wasn’t like I needed a pool or spa experience, just a clean place to sleep. Arrival was underwhelming, but I “toughed it out” 🙂

I should have captured more pictures of the many rules and signs. Warning about not driving trucks under the front canopy or how to clean your shoes before entering. All a result of some past experience. One sign suggested a “$1,500 fine for hitting canopy”.

The hotel was quiet with only a few cars when I arrived on a random Wednesday night. A good sign that it might be quiet. My stay was quiet, but I wouldn’t guarantee that for every experience, of course.

I started to pick up the “Pink Phone,” but soon a desk clerk came out of the private “office” area / Living quarters to check me in. He was very nice and asked about my trip. I was exhausted after a VERY long day and was thankful to have my keys so I could head to my room. I’m always disappointed when a hotel starts breakfast at 7am, as he informed me, but he said coffee would be available 24/7, so I would survive, as I had to get up at 4am the next morning.

When you enter the room, it has a vanity, refrigerator, and microwave to greet you. Not a fan of having carpet near a vanity, so laminate flooring would be a better choice for this hotel, but the carpet looked new and was spotless.

Bar soap is provided, which is my main request of hotels. It’s a personal preference, but I don’t use body wash and washcloths. I need bar soap, so I appreciated this minor feature that most hotels have gotten rid of in the name of saving the planet from soap waste or something dumb.

You could tell this was an older building by the setup of the bathroom and the small toilet set low to the ground, but it was spotless. I was impressed. I like to complain, so I don’t say this lightly. The shower turned out to be fine. The shower head was decent, however, I would have moved to shampoo and bodywash dispenser to the far wall as it was right next to your arms when you try to shower. By the way, is there a major difference between “Body Wash” and “Shampoo”? I’m sure there is, but if they want to save money and the planet, why not just combine it all into one gross dispenser 🙂

A small work table and a decent-sized TV with a good selection of cable TV channels were available. I didn’t take a photo of them, but each wall light also had USB and USB-C plugs AND electrical outlets. Very nice indeed.

The beds were clean, the pillows good, and the mattresses seemed new and nice. Everything was fresh. It was a pleasant surprise. 5 Stars! I really didn’t love the metal bedframes, and they sat a bit too far from the wall without a headboard to sit against while watching TV or working on my laptop, but a minor complaint. I had a decent night’s sleep and got up early to enjoy several cups of coffee before my early morning meeting was moved later, so I would have a chance to grab the 7am breakfast after all.

The breakfast was much better than I’ve had at Super 8’s in the past. It offered oatmeal, apples, cold cereal, a few Danish items, toast, and even a waffle machine. No sausage, bacon, or eggs like you might get at the “Fancy” HIX, Fairfield, or Hampton level hotel, but it was fine. I didn’t find any juice or bananas that would make it a bit better for me.

Overall, I would rate this Super 8 a 4+ stars for a quick business overnight. There is no pool, fitness room, or other such frills, but I don’t usually use those anyway.

Pros: Clean, location that was convenient for my needs, friendly staff, and 24-hour free low-quality coffee. Good TV.

Cons: A little lacking on breakfast items, and the price I paid was $133, which is about $40 more than I would expect to pay at any Super 8 in the Midwest for a rural location. Then again, it’s the only hotel in town that most people would stay at. That night, the hotels in nearby Princeton, Indiana, were nearly $200, and I couldn’t even find an available Airbnb.

The other Con is that it’s a Wyndham hotel, which I don’t really participate with, but many wouldn’t mind that. I did end up with 1,600 American Airlines miles out of it, so I’d value that much as I would 3,000 or more IHG or Hilton points.

Essential Strategies for Managing Travel Disruptions (USA Edition)

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There is a lot of attention being paid to flight delays and cancellations right now due to the current 2025 government shutdown. This has impacted TSA, Air Traffic Controllers, and other staffing, which is causing many of the issues, but delays and cancellations can happen at any time. It’s not like flight work perfectly even when the weather or government is running smoothly. So what can you do if your flight is impacted?

I’ve been a fan of Samantha Brown, the travel expert, for years. On her Instagram feed, she posted some tips for this.

What you want to do is make sure you have the airline’s app on your device and also check out the US Department of Transportation Airline Cancellation and Delay Dashboard, or the similar Customer Service Dashboard, which seems to offer much of the same information.

This will give you information on what each major airline offers when there is a delay beyond their control or within their control.

This website also provides other information, such as the family seating policy and some other good information. I was surprised at how well this is presented. You might still run into issues with airline staff on the ground when they are under stress, inexperienced, or power tripping, but at least you have the rules in front of you and can choose your options.

The other thing that Samantha Brown points out is that some airlines also have meal vouchers on their apps that automatically load into your account when there are IROPS. United, Southwest, American, and Delta can do this as far as I can tell, but United seems to be the best at it to date.

Some of these vouchers are issued in the form of a Mastercard or Discover card and can also be loaded into your restaurant apps. Some airlines like ANA, United, Alaska, Delta, and I’m sure others issue these via a Mastercard or Discover Giftcard, usually. These can be loaded into apps for various restaurants.

If you choose to load these into a restaurant app it may ask for your name and the billing address. The billing address is usually: use 1475 E Woodfield Rd, Schaumburg, IL 60173 as the issuer of the cards or voucher, “most” of the time, but YMMV.

List of apps to load airline meal vouchers to or buy gift cards from:

  • Starbucks ->(use 1475 E Woodfield Rd, Schaumburg, IL 60173 as billing address as a workaround)
  • Chick Fil-A
  • McDonalds
  • Panera
  • Peets Coffee
  • Molly Moon
  • Crumbl
  • Dunkin’ Donuts (and I assume Baskin-Robbins)

Does not work:

  • Chipotle
  • Burger King

I assume there are other restaurant apps these work on. It’s reported that you can use these to buy gift cards as well. You should be able to buy Jason’s Deli gift cards through their site. They ask for billing info, so use first/last names on your voucher and the 1475 East Woodfield Road address above. It only seems to work for e-cards, but not for physical (mailed) gift cards.

When it comes to trip delay insurance coverage through purchased policies or through cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you will need proof of this delay, or they can deny the claim. The best way to get that is to ask for documentation from the gate agent or other staff for a “Military Excuse” form or another document explaining the reason for the delay. If it is a weather-related delay, I would try to gather screenshots from your phone or from other sources on the weather event, as it can be impossible to get that after the fact. ask me how I know this… I would even suggest taking photos of the departure boards or anything you can think of to document the delay or cancellation to help your insurance claim.

Hopefully, you don’t need any of this information, but a few tips can help you avoid standing in long lines after a delay or cancellation. Godspeed and Safe Travels.

Fun Hilton Honors Points Explorer Tool

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I’ve been in the points and miles game since the early 1990’s back when hotels would issue paper certificates, so things have changed a lot since then. Most tools and websites that are useful, I already use or at least know about, but somehow I missed the Hilton Honors Points Explorer Tool.

The tool is simple and allows for good sorting and mapping by location and type of stay.

You can enter a location without dates or without “Looking for something specific” and it will show all options within the points range slider limits you chose.

It then allows you to sort by date, distance, and amenities like most hotel sites.

This isn’t rocket science, but many other hotel brands don’t have an “easy” to use feature like this, or their website is very slow. To Hilton’s credit, this site seems to be fast and accurate. You can enter locations by city or country, but it doesn’t seem to allow a broad search like “Asia” or “Europe”.

For my quick United Kingdom search, I found out that the London DoubleTree Kensington was the most expensive by points. 56,000 to 496,000 per night is too expensive for my points wallet! Wow!

The downside to the tool that I have found is that some locations don’t seem to show up without being logged in and dates entered. For example, in my search for “Israel”, it wouldn’t show any locations in the whole country, yet there are at least 2 properties there. The error seems to be linked to hotels that are available or unavailable on points stays without specific dates, is my guess.

Hopefully, this tool can be useful to you as a quick search to see how far your Hilton points can take you.

Troy, IL Hotel Review: Holiday Inn Express Experience

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I had a quick overnight at the Holiday Inn Express in Troy, Illinois, recently, so I wanted to do a short photo review of the stay.

The hotel is located just South of the I-70 interchange on I-55 in Illinois. This is the far Northeast corner of the St. Louis metro area. It is well located along the interstate and appears to attract many road trippers just coming through. Certainly not a destination property, I assume.

It’s next to several other lesser-quality chain hotels and several restaurants within walking distance. There is a Cracker Barrel, a Taco Bell, and a local BBQ restaurant almost in the parking lot. Many other chain restaurants are within less than a mile as well.

Troy is a fairly safe suburban area, so crime shouldn’t be a major problem, although several lower-scale hotels and truck stops nearby could attract some crime I would guess.

There is also a small indoor pool, but I couldn’t get a photo of it due to fellow travelers using it at the time.

No Bar soap, so that was a fail. One of my biggest pet peeves with hotels trying to be cheap under the thin veil of trying to be green. Speaking of ‘green,’ they include door hangers you can put out each night for 500 points instead of housekeeping, but I’m still fighting for my 500 welcome amenity points for being Platinum with IHG *sigh*…

The room was clean for the most part, but the shower could use a deeper clean. It has some black and pink spots around the edges that shouldn’t be there, considering the condition of the rest of the property.

The hotel also features a non-Tesla brand bank of EV chargers, so that is a nice feature for some travelers. The nearest Tesla superchargers are in Collinsville, about 10 minutes away.

Pros: Great water pressure in the shower! Friendly staff, good breakfast starting at 6am, like it should, not 6:30am, etc.

Cons: The shower could have been cleaner, the TV was a bit small for the room size, and check-in and check-out weren’t great. I’m still fighting for my stupid 500 points, which I’m working WAY too hard for at this point.

I would stay here again if I have work in the area due to the location, but there are some nicer hotels in nearby Edwardsville; however, they aren’t on the interstate.

Did Southwest let Chase declare their points are worth less than 1 cent each?

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My wife has the Southwest Priority Card until the annual fee goes up next year. She just got a spend promo from Chase. These are pretty typical and usually provide 5x points for spend in certain categories. We always sign up for them, but usually can’t max them out unless it’s something good like Amazon spending. I guess you could say I am pretty well-versed on these and the fine print.

We currently have several cards with gas, grocery, and restaurant deals from 3x to 5x, but this new Southwest one caught my eye.

As you can see, it is 4% up to $40 through September. I thought, well, that is pretty good and easy to max out, even if we buy most of our groceries at Walmart, which doesn’t count. But then I read the fine print.

OK, still 4% back up to $40, so doing my public school math, that is $1,000 to get $40, I’m in, or at least I’ll register. But then it dawned on me…why? Why cashback, why not points or miles? Now I know Freedom does this as cash back, but it really ends up being points.

Maybe I’m dumb, but since we prefer airline credit cards, wouldn’t you think Chase would assume we want miles or points instead of cash? If I just wanted a cash rewards card, I’d just do that. I’m sure I’m reading too much into all this, but it will be interesting to see how we earn this bonus. Of course, it takes 6 to 8 weeks because, well, it’s 2025.

My conclusion on this is if they want to pay us 4% cash back instead of the typical 5x points, does that mean Southwest points are worth less than 1 cent each? My reasoning is that if this were 5x points, I’d earn 5,000 points, not $40 for the same $1,000 spend on this card.

If my math is correct, 5,000 points at $40 is about .008 per point.

Next time, Chase, just give me points, it’s a game, not real life, to me in this space. I’m trying to earn a vacation here, not $40.

I’d even add that if I had $40 in Southwest points, which we now know is 5,000 points, I’d be spending them only on Southwest, so the cost for them to provide that 5,000 worth of service would likely be worth less and give them more profit. I suppose Chase doesn’t see it that way.

Are the Changes to Citi AAdvantage Business World Elite Mastercard a game changer?

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I have a couple of small businesses and like all good churners I have a few business credit cards for those purposes. This includes the Citibank American Airlines Work Elite Mastercard. It’s always been an OK card with decent earn rates towards American Airlines AAdvantage miles and the sign-up bonus was good. It’s good for small businesses where you can add and manage additional cardholders. To me, it was about like their other personal platinum-flavored cards. It usually offers a SUB of around 70,000’ish miles and a low annual fee. Earns 2x on some things like telecommunications and 2x on gas as long as you only want 1x loyalty points for that with the other 1x being “bonus” miles only. Yawn.

This card is not to be confused with the Barclay Aviator Business card but yet it’s about the same.

So why are we talking about this card now and how could it be a game changer for a few select people chasing status or benefits?

They are changing this card and how it’s going to reward you.

Citibank just released changes to this card as follows:

Enjoy your new, exclusive AAdvantage Business™ membership benefits as a Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ cardmember, now available to you and your Authorized Users.

 
 What’s new 
 
 • We’ve updated our name to Citi®/ AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® to better reflect the new value of your added benefits with the AAdvantage Business™ program. You will not be immediately reissued a new card with this change. 
 
 • With your AAdvantage Business™ membership, miles your company earns from eligible purchases made with the Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ card will now accrue to your AAdvantage Business™ account. They can be distributed to any registered employee at no cost, for use on flights, upgrades, car rentals and more. 
 
 • Each registered cardmember, the Primary and any Authorized Users, earns Loyalty Points toward status from eligible purchases made with the Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ card in their name. 
 
 
 • As a Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ cardmember, your company enjoys waived program requirements. Your miles are always available for you to use, no need to meet the $5,000 spend and 5 traveler minimums. 
 
 Same great benefits 
 
 • Continue to earn 2X miles on eligible American Airlines purchases, 2X miles at telecommunications merchants and cable and satellite providers, and 2X miles on car rental merchants and at gas stations 
 
 • Earn 1 mile for every $1 spent on all other eligible purchases made with your Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ card. 
 
 • As the Primary Cardmember, you’ll continue to enjoy your first checked bag free on domestic American Airlines itineraries, plus preferred boarding on American Airlines flights. 
 
 If you haven’t already, invite your Authorized Users and employees to register with your AAdvantage Business™ account and start earning miles for your business right away. Authorized Users must register to participate in the AAdvantage Business™ program, or their card account may be closed. Visit the travel management portal to get started.

So what? Well, look at the fine print. “In Theory” it seems that your employees (or other additional cardholders in 2-player mode) will earn 1x loyalty points on purchases but as the “business owner,” you will also earn 1x loyalty points on those purchases. While higher-level cards may earn high-level spending bonuses this is pretty sweet but not unusual.

But…Imagine if you will, you have a small business and you have your wife, your college student child, and your deadbeat cousin, and some actual, good employees all spending on this card. It “seems” like “In Theory” that all that cash flow going through those employee cards you would earn extra loyalty points plus business points for what they are doing daily like buying gas. Imagine you have a thriving small business where you have 10 or 20 employees doing this. Citi includes a graphic on this as well to prove my point.

Here it is again from their FAQ:

“Miles earned from the Primary Cardmember and Authorized Users post to the company’s AAdvantage Business™ account. Each card member (Primary and employee) earns Loyalty Points on their card purchases. Loyalty Points earned by the Primary Cardmember post to the Primary’s AAdvantage® account. Loyalty Points earned by the employee post to the employee’s AAdvantage® account.”

Now, maybe it’s not the big of a deal as a standard additional cardholder on your personal account would also contribute to your loyalty points but this allows you to have many employees contribute from the way I read this.

If you are looking to sign up and get the best sign-up bonus for such a card I’d suggest checking out the Frequent Miler blog’s “Best Offers” page as a good place to start your research.

Photo Review Lodge of The Four Seasons (Sounds Fancy)

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Recently I had a business conference at Lake of the Ozarks. The group elected to have it at Lodge of the Four Seasons (yeah, not THAT Four Seasons). When having large conferences in Mid-Missouri there are only really two places at Lake of the Ozarks to choose from traditionally. You can pick Tan-Tar-A (Now Margaritaville) or Lodge of the Four Seasons. Both are historic sprawling resorts right on the water. Both are past their prime but are trying hard. Tan-Tar-A was originally a Marriott resort for many years until they ran out of nearby timeshare houses and ran it into the ground. Lodge of the Four Seasons is a bit more historic. The original family still owns it since its opening in 1955 as a Chase Park property. Many movie stars like Frank Sinatra visited at one time or another but those times are gone. It still has some of that old spark but things have become a bit worn out over the years. I have a feeling that Covid hasn’t helped. Tan-Tar-A was recently modeled a couple years ago since Margaritaville bought them out. It has the edge on shopping and entertainment facilities but both have a lot to offer and neither one is owned by the Byrd’s or any drug cartel as far as I know.

Main Lodge
1955 Style. Hard to get this photo as everyone at the Lodge seems to love this spot with a wood-burning fire going all day.
HK restaurant (understaffed and slow service during our off-season visit).
Main Lodge Entrance
View of the Lake
Hotel Yacht club area
Main Conference Center Atrium
Coffee shop / bar area
View of Seasons Bay Bldg (Pick the main lodge if you stay)
Seasons Bay Bldg
Main Lodge Lanai pool side room
Main Lodge Bldg
Main Pool (off season)
Japanese Gardens
Kids room area
Typical Hallway
View from Main Lodge Room

We visited this resort on a very cold week in early April so still off-season. Lake of the Ozarks is a major Summer destination for sure. It didn’t impact us much as we spent 95% of the time inside generic large meeting rooms but it was a fun visit. They seemed very understaffed for food service which would be my main complaint. The staff really made this resort shine but they need more staff for the bars and restaurants. It was difficult to impossible to get a beer at 4pm when our meetings ended. The staff at the rooftop and main restaurant bar spent much more time trying to get their computer POS to work than serving customers.

Overall I would stay here again as the rooms are dated but spotless. Next time I hope they provide bars of soap but no other complaints about the room. Think old Marriott hotel. I wish they have some affiliation with a hotel chain for points earning or elite perks but that isn’t too big of a deal in this area as most don’t.

I think a visit in the Summer would be the best idea for this property to take full use of the outdoor pools, lake, boating, and golf course but they do have a Spa and indoor pool (sorry no photos). This hotel could use some remodeling and I hope they do so long term as the buildings are starting to show some wear for sure. It might need a major influx in cash to return it to its historic glory. Here is the non-affiliate link if you want to check it out. https://4seasonsresort.com/

A few of my favorite travel photos

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Just sharing a few of my favorite travel photos while I wait for covid travel stabilization. Sure I have some travel coming up. A cruise, road trip, and trying to book a new Europe trip from my AA covid miles stash but on a cold winter day, I like to look back. I’m not a professional photographer so forgive the average quality of some of my photos. Just because they are a favorite doesn’t mean they are the best quality photos in the world. I only had to go as far back as 2019 to find some of my favorites in this edition.

North Shore of Hawaii in 2021
Schipol Airport AMS Dec 2019 (before the covid storm)
Christmas Market in Munich Nov 2019
Denver Colorado August 2019
The Upper Room in Jerusalem 2019
Honduras February 2019
Road trip to Phoenix May 2020 in our 2001 Porsche 911 at the Little Grand Canyon in Arizona

Marriott $25 gift card on 7+ night stays targeted offer. AKA: Travel Makes us Joyful in 2022

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Marriott has a niche, targeted offer out where you get a $25 grocery gift card for 7+ night extended stays at “Participating” properties using corporate/coupon code ES7 in the booking details. The offers says “Hang out with us for awhile and save with extended−stay rates and a $25 grocery card on 7+ nights.” If you are targeted you may find this in a recent email with the subject line “FOR YOU: Special Offers on 2022 Travel”.

Credit: Marriott email offer

Travel Makes us Joyful

Need to Know

  • Earn a $25 Grocery Gift Card
  • Package available for guests staying 7+ nights
  • Book by April 6, 2022
  • Promotional Code: ES7 What’s this?
  • Valid Stay Dates: January 1, 2022 – June 19, 2022

Description

Settling in for an extended stay in the New Year? Receive a $25 grocery gift card on us when you stay for 7+ consecutive nights.

Available at participating properties in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean and Latin America.

More offer details show:

How to Book:

Be sure that the Promotional Code appears in the Corporate/Promotional code box when making your online reservation, or call 1-800-228-9290 and ask for the promotional code. For toll-free numbers outside the US please visit Global Reservation Numbers

T&C

Terms & Conditions:

Includes a $25 grocery gift card for every 7 nights consecutively stayed; grocery store location may be preselected by hotel. Minimum length of stay required (varies by participating hotels). A minimum length of stay may apply. Offers may be advance payment/non-refundable and non-changeable. Offer must fall within valid dates and is only valid through the stay window end date. Limited number of rooms are available for this promotion. Tax is additional. Offer does not apply to groups of 10 or more rooms. Offer cannot be combined with any other promotions. Blackout dates may apply. Advance reservations required. Other restrictions apply. Rates are per room, per night and based on availability at the time of reservations.

While it seems many hotels don’t allow this rate code it could be valuable. My random search for a Wednesday night in mid-February in Chicago (not tourist high season of course). Only showed two properties you could book this for at this moment in time.

Apparently cold weather and hot chocolate is involved with this marketing effort.

Photo Review Marriott Waikiki Beach Hotel

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We recently had a short two night stay in Waikiki. Thanks to the Marriott points temporary discount I was able to use two of my 35k free night certs that are usually useless on Oahu.

Due to my low Gold status I did end up in a nice beach view room. We really enjoyed the large balcony and view of the nearby hotels.

Pros of this hotel include location at Waikiki and near the Zoo. Friendly staff and recently renovated rooms.

Cons of this hotel include $50 resort fee per night, $45 per night parking fee and location on Waikiki which is Branson Missouri west with tourists and traffic. Noisy night and day and also tons of homeless citizens all over the beach. Also the band at the hotel next door plays late into the evening which you can hear in your room. Street racing on the street below with horns, people yelling all night etc.

Overall I would stay here again and enjoyed most of it. The check in using the Hawaii covid website is a real pain as the hotel won’t take a printed QR code, they make you log in and go through 2 factor authentication to show them it on your phone while a line forms at the check-in desk.